The Lambton Worm
England's serpent-dragons are worms: the shadow you toss in the well returns coiled around the hill.
England's serpent-dragons are *worms* (Old English *wyrm*): the Lambton Worm, the Laidly Worm, the Linton Worm — creatures that begin small (a fished-up larva casually tossed in a well) and grow monstrous through neglect. Young Lambton fishes on a Sunday, catches an ugly thing, drops it in a well, and rides off to the Crusades; while he is away the worm grows to encircle a hill and terrorize the countryside. The moral is exact: the shadow you discard into the well returns coiled around the hill. And in the Laidly Worm, the dragon is a cursed princess restored — again — by a kiss.
The SGE Reading
Shadow stage as *time-lapse*: the difference between a small honest reckoning today and a hillside-coiled monster in twenty years.
Canon Resonance
The cautionary counterpart to the moura: the same fish, unattended, becomes a Lambton Worm.
A Micro-Practice
Name one thing you have "thrown into the well" and ridden away from. Return, briefly, and greet it in one sentence. That is enough for today.
Sources & Respect
Northumbrian folk ballad, *The Lambton Worm*; the Laidly Worm of Bamburgh.